Realms and cross-device play: now on Pocket / Win 10

Posted on Jun 13, 2016
by Marsh Davies

Somewhere out there, on a hot stage in LA, Lydia has just announced the release of The Friendly Update, aka 0.15, for Pocket and Windows 10 Edition. And not just that! We can now reveal that The Friendly Update’s hitherto mysteriously unspecified friendliness is a result of two major features: Realms and cross-device multiplayer!

Realms are servers, run by us, just for you and your friends. Now, you can keep your Pocket / Win 10 Edition Minecraft world online and always accessible, even when you log-off. It’s safe, too! Only people you invite can join your world, and what you do there is up to you: create, survive or compete.

Not convinced? Then try out the month-long free trial! Read all about how to get your hands on Realms on our shiny new site.

Now you can play Pocket / Win 10 edition with your friends whatever device they are running it on, be it a shiny Android phablet, the latest flavour of iDevice or a beefy Windows 10 monster-rig. You can even join each other’s worlds while strapped into a Gear VR. All this friendliness is powered by Xbox Live - it’s free to sign up, so don’t be scared.

This isn’t the only thing we’re showing off at E3. We’re also excited to give you a sneak peak at Add-ons. These will allow players to transform the look of their world and even change the behavior of mobs by editing a simple script. The results can be pretty dramatic and elaborate, like the Alien Invasion add-on Lydia showed off on stage moments ago. If you’re too late to jump on the live feed, there’ll almost certainly be a video of the entire Microsoft conference uploaded shortly after it concludes, and walkthroughs of the new features on the Xbox Twitch channel later in the week.